Industrial ecology in motion through enterprise integration

As the next millennium approaches, effective product stewardship strategies require that computer manufacturers put in motion industrial ecology principles of optimizing the materials life cycle from the product's final disposal. One method is aggressively embracing enterprise integration-the linking of organizations, companies and communities with the goal of making environmental considerations a part of every activity. This paper describes how IBM and the industry are responding-and must respond even further-to shifting environmental awareness around the world, the explosive growth of electronic products, technical challenges to solving global environmental problems, and regulatory challenges posed by governments around the world.